Fifteen Medicare Advantage contracts that include drug coverage earned the top five-star rating for 2027, down from 22 a year earlier, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency published the ratings on October 8, 2026, a week before Open Enrollment began.
The drop comes as the number of rated contracts barely moved. CMS rated 508 Medicare Advantage drug-plan contracts, known as MA-PD contracts, for 2027, compared with 516 for 2026.
What did the 2027 Star Ratings show?
CMS’s 2027 Star Ratings fact sheet lists 15 five-star MA-PD contracts in its Table 1, against 22 in the 2026 ratings. Six of the 15 also had five stars last year, so nine are new to the top tier. The enrollment-weighted average overall rating slipped from 4.01 to 3.99.
Standalone Part D drug plans, which are rated separately, moved the other way. Their average Part D rating rose from 3.01 to 3.22, and CMS counted 41 rated standalone contracts, up from 40.
These are counts of contracts, not plans and not insurers. One contract can hold many plan benefit packages, each with its own premium, drug list and network, so a five-star contract does not mean every plan under that insurer’s name carries the rating.
Is my plan one of the good ones for next year?
Most people in Medicare Advantage are still in a well-rated contract. CMS says about 71 percent of MA-PD enrollees are in contracts with four or more stars, and that group covers 188 contracts, about 37 percent of all MA-PD contracts. Four MA-PD contracts earned the low-performing icon for 2027, the same number as 2026.
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A member can find a plan’s rating on Medicare Plan Finder, where CMS put the ratings on October 8. The agency also marks the 15 five-star contracts with a high-performing icon there. Anyone in a plan that fell from five stars should look at the contract number on the Annual Notice of Change before deciding whether to stay.
Who still has time to switch?
Open Enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026, CMS says, so anyone who wants to move to another plan for 2027 has until December 7. The free tool for comparing options is Medicare Plan Finder, where costs, covered drugs and star ratings appear side by side for a specific ZIP code and prescription list.
Star ratings measure quality, not price. The fact sheet says each MA-PD contract is scored on up to 43 measures, while Part D-only contracts are scored on up to 13. A highly rated plan can still leave out a particular drug or a particular doctor, and a lower-rated plan can cost less for the way one person actually uses care.
Does the nonprofit label or the money behind the ratings matter?
CMS broke the results out by tax status. About 44 percent of nonprofit MA-PD contracts earned four or more stars, compared with about 34 percent of for-profit contracts. That is a pattern in the averages, not a promise about any one plan.
The ratings also carry money. CMS says the 2027 Star Ratings affect quality bonus payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2028, which is one reason insurers watch them so closely and why the agency adds new measures each year. For 2027, the two new measures cover concurrent use of opioids and benzodiazepines, and use of multiple anticholinergic medications in older adults.
For a member, the practical test is narrower. A plan that earned five stars in October still has to cover the drugs a person takes and the doctors a person sees in January. Plan Finder answers that for free, and the choice has to be made by December 7.
Is the best-rated plan the cheapest plan for your pills and doctors?
A plan can carry five stars and still cost more for one person’s prescriptions or leave a specialist out of network, and Open Enrollment closes on December 7.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, plus the Open Enrollment calendar and a prescription-by-plan comparison, so a keep, switch or wait decision has a written reason behind it.
Get the plan cost calculator and Open Enrollment calendar in the decision kit →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
